Etymologically
Log in

navus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 20:41. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈnaː.wʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈnaː.vus][1]

Forms

nāvus (feminine nāva, neuter nāvum, comparative nāvior, superlative nāvissimus, adverb nāviter); first/second-declension adjective[1] The older spelling gnāvus is also found.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *gnāwo-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵn(e)h₃-uo- (“knowing”),[3] a derivative of *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).[1][4] This requires a change of ⟨*-ōw-⟩ to ⟨*-āw-⟩, or a form with the zero grade of the root; it is also possible that the Italic adjective was made on the model of gnārus (“knowing”).[3] The meaning would have passed from “knowing” to “experienced” and then to “busy”, an ordinary development.[3] Ancient grammarians, in Festus, derived it from the speed of ships, nāvis (“ship”).[4]

Cognate with Irish gnó (“business”), Welsh go-gnaw (“active, persistent”) and Middle Irish gnou (“excellent”); Old Norse knár (“hardy, vigorous”) may also belong here.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has only the adverb nāvē;[3] the adjective is first found in Ennius' Annals: nāvus repertus homō, “a man found to be diligent”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It always kept the sense of busy, energetic diligence, of people and, in Velleius Paterculus and later, of the work they do.[2][6] Its negative īgnāvus “lazy, idle” is found from Plautus on, and the noun īgnāvia “idleness” from Naevius.[3] Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the adjective and its adverb nāviter.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the adverb nāvē.[3][5]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses the adjective of a diligent man.[2][5]
  • c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius Paterculus uses it of work done with energy.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Diligent, industrious, active, busy.[2][6][7]
  2. Of actions: done with diligence, assiduous.[2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson